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Germany's Pegida anti-Islamisation group says it has a new hero: Narendra Modi

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overseas fan club is swelling. Among his new fans are the leaders of Germany’s Pegida ‒ a German acronym for the Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West group that was formed in Dresden in October. The organisation hit the global headlines in January when, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, 25,000 sympathisers turned out to protest Muslim immigration to Germany. Pegida has since inspired the formation of me-too groups in other parts of Germany (Legida in Leipzig, Bogida in Bonn, Fragida in Frankfurt) and abroad (US, Canada and UK). It has continued to make its presence felt by organising street demonstrations in Dresden every Monday.

When Scroll.in interviewed the two top Pegida leaders ahead of their rally in Dresden last Monday, they were effusive in their praise for India’s prime minister. “We need a leader like him in Germany here,” declared Lutz Bachmann, Pegida’s head and founder. Bachmann had quit Pegida late in January after a photo of him styled as Adolf Hitler went viral but rejoined a month later. His aide Tatjana Festerling added, “Not only in Germany, but the whole of Europe. We need courageous leaders who are positioning themselves against Islamisation.”...'